As I suspect many others are doing,I’m still trying to catch up on sleep and work backlog from my week in San Francisco. I’m hoping to post more about sessions and roundtables later,but for now, some highlights from the Preservation Section meeting on Friday (8/29).
Announcements and Updates from consortiums and funding agencies:
Ann Russell,Executive Director,NEDCC,talked about their recent initiatives:dPlan,the online Preservation 101 course,and a digital preservation toolkit. All of these tools could be useful for planning and understanding the scope of various collection-related issues,particularly at smaller and less-funded institutions.
Peter Wosh,SAA Publications director,spoke about a proposal for the development of a preservation manual in the same vein as the SAA Archival Fundamentals series. There was some discussion regarding single author vs. multiple chapters/authors under a single editor,with the conclusion that either model would work for this type of manual. Contact Peter if you’re interested in working on this project. Additionally,a document that was originally intended for archivists looking at building/renovation projects is available in draft form/PDF on the SAA website. Link here.
Kathleen Williams,Executive Director,NHPRC,discussed the current funding situation. Basically,funding for NHPRC must be reauthorized every five years by Congress. It has been approved by the House,and was supposed to be introduced in the Senate sometime after Labor Day. However,being an election year,it’s possible that funding will fall under a continuing resolution (with the previous funding amount) in order to operate while everyone is out there on the stump. While I was looking for the above legislation,I found a bill introduced in the House to strike a commemorative coin for the 75th anniversary of NARA and NHPRC in 2010–HR. 6300. It’s interesting to realize how young our National Archives really is,particularly in comparison to those of other countries.
After all of the announcements,there was a panel titled “The Drive to Digitize,”which was followed by some discussion. My notes are a bit scratchy at this point,so I’m hoping that others will help fill in any gaps.
Thomas Clareson,PALINET:
-stated that priority to preserve that is driving digitization,and that he felt rumors of the demise of preservation funding in favor of digitization grants were exaggerated
-Trends helping cause:IMLS focusing more on preservation- possibly as a result of the 2005 Heritage Health Index;implementation money
- Concern:current (dormant) status of stabilization grants
-Best way to advocate for more funding is to use currently available $. Use LoC list of preservation-friendly funding institutions,LSTA library state funding for preservation
Kaye Lanning Minchew,Troup County Archives,GA (funding recipient)
-Discussed digitization project originally slated for access purposes that turned into a preservation project.
Susan Malbin,IMLS:
-Talked about the custodianship of digital surrogates,post-grant project,and the importance of outlining future plans for these in the grantwriting process.
-Mentioned National Leadership &Laura Bush grants (deadline 12/15)
Kathleen Williams,NHPRC:
-Discussed drivers for dunding decisions
-Projects:preservation (archives and manuscripts) and documentary projects;trying to meet goals of preservation and access
-Make case that digitization needs to fall within preservation continuum,not vacuum
Joel Wurl,NEH:
-Digitization at core of institutional debate over preservation and access
-Anecdotally,digital funding has had some impact on preservation funding;not much increase in total agency funding
-Attempting to ensure future availability of resources>challenge:how to best harness interest/resources?
-Caution in thinking of granting agencies as drivers rather than listeners/facilitators